


Bloodstained

by Zelinkslullaby



Category: Fire Emblem Series, Fire Emblem: Fuukasetsugetsu | Fire Emblem: Three Houses
Genre: Angst and Hurt/Comfort, Angst with a Happy Ending, Blood, F/M, Happy Ending, Hurt/Comfort, Implied/Referenced Self-Harm, Mild Blood, Nightmares, no beta we die like men
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-09-13
Updated: 2019-09-13
Packaged: 2020-10-17 16:41:16
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,460
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20624213
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Zelinkslullaby/pseuds/Zelinkslullaby
Summary: Dimitri will always be haunted by nightmares. The people hes lost, how he's lost them... and the ones he's killed. Thankfully, he will also always have his beloved by his side.





	Bloodstained

"Not enough. It'll never be enough, your highness" Sympathy laces his tone. But any hope Dimitri had of being treated kindly for once is squashed when Glenn's face twists into a sneer, not unlike the ones Felix gives him. "I gave my life for you. Yet here you lie. Content. Living a dream I was forced to throw away for you..."   
  
A whimper breaks the silence of the night as the king curls in on himself. The blankets do not warm him enough to stave off the chill his father's eyes send down his spine. Blood drips from all around his neck, creating a deafening echo with each droplet that hits the ground. Louder than his voice that mutters in disappointment, "Sickening... Pathetic... So weak..."  
  
"I know... I know..." he murmurs, broken. It is a familiar sight. Glenn and his father, surrounded by others murdered before his eyes, their fatal wounds still fresh.   
  
Flames surround the others who fell to such fate, at the front, his stepmother. Angrier than he's ever seen her. Kind and loving demeanor leaving her spirit like the smoke as she shrieks, "Why do you deserve happiness while we suffer?! As if this death was not painful enough, we are to watch you live on? Unbothered,-"  
  
"-Forgetting us...?" a myriad of voices finish the late Queen's inquiry, but in a far more sinister tone. He whirs around, body jerking to the side in the waking world.   
  
All who have fallen by his hand tower over him. Some menacing, some sad, and scorn in every eye upon him.   
  
Trembling, he holds his arm out defensively, backing up until he stumbles. Areadbhar lays at his feet. The dead loom closer, screams and accusations ringing so loud in his ears his head spins. He reaches for it, but his body moves like he's fighting through molasses.  
  
Except it isnt molasses.  
  
It's blood.   
  
The disgustingly warm crimson liquid surrounds him. He's sitting in a lake of it. Hands and legs covered in blood old and new. The stench of death stings his nose and it takes everything in him not to retch.   
  
"Murderer. Killer. Monster. Beast. Heartless heartless beast."   
  
Dimitri gasps awake, choking on the sudden intake of air. He's shivering violently. Cold sweat drenching his skin and adrenaline fresh in his veins. For several moments he can't even move.   
  
'_Byleth... Where's Byleth? I need her. Where is she? Why isnt she here? Is she okay? Byleth_!' His thoughts are frantic, focused only on the light that drives away the darkness within him.   
  
For several minutes he's frozen, breathing shaky, lungs unable to fill or empty enough. Every second that passes dread and panic spread like lightning and ice through his veins. '_Byleth_...!' Tears sting his eyes.  
  
"You're all alone, Dimitri~" the young king's mother, whom he has never truly known, croons in a deceptively sweet voice.  
  
'_No, no. Byleth wouldn't leave me. She_...' Another cold wave of fear washes over him. It's just what he needs to spur into action. Paralysis releases him and he finally springs upright. He immediately turns to Byleth's side of the bed. At last, air refills his lungs.   
  
She's sleeping soundly. Snuggled in the blankets with her back to him. Both of them had a busy, exhausting day. Most nights his outward distress awakens her. And she saves him from the austere clutches of darkness.   
  
He reaches for her in earnest.  
His light. His beloved.   
  
The moonlight shines off her mint hair and soft skin. She looks ethereal. Though far more beautiful than anything he's ever seen during this moon.  
  
Dimitri is still as stone when the light reaches his hand, just about to grasp her shoulder.  
  
Blood.  
  
There was so much blood on his hands... He's breathless. '_How did I go to bed with so much blood on my hands? Where did it come from_?' Fear renters him with such force he becomes lightheaded. '_I cant taint her like this... I'm filthy. Covered in blood. I-'_ He cuts off his own thoughts and scrambles out of bed in a panic.   
  
His actions are clumsy, hands shaking and head spinning. The blood is making his fingers too slippery to turn the knobs for the bathtub. He can't get his hands under the water fast enough. It's so hot, it burns.   
  
"Good" they whisper. "Burn with us..."   
  
Dimitri chokes back a sob. Nothing is coming off... the water pooling in the tub turns pink, but his hands and forearms remain crimson as when he began. He grabs the mesh puff covered in Byleth's soap and starts scrubbing frantically.  
  
In the next room, Byleth shivers under the blankets. Dimitri prefers to leave the window open just a crack, even in the cold months, for fresh air. With their thick blanket and her warm husband always pressed against her, she doesn't complain.   
  
At the moment, though, the queen finds herself unusually cold. Turning in half slumber and reaching, reaching, only to find nothing. She opens her eyes with confusion. His side of the bed is still warm... but familiarity damp with sweat. '_He had a nightmare._..' She realizes '_But why didnt he wake me_?'  
  
Despite the frigid chill of Faerghus's winter night, Byleth finds it in her to throw off the blankets. Her feet find comfort in the soft carpet, and her arms in the friction of her hands rubbing over them.   
  
The sound of water running catches her ears. If he'd gone off to the training grounds, he wouldn't shower beforehand. With the bed proving he was recently at her side... Byleth is confused and worried. She walks around their bed to their private bathroom adjacent. Knocking once, she calls out, "Dimitri?"

There's no answer.   
  
She enters to find her husband kneeling against the tub, scrubbing his forearms absolutely raw.   
  
"Dimitri!"   
  
Still, he does not hear her. All he hears are the whispers and screams of the dead. Byleth bolts to his side, and it is only when the scrub is yanked from his hands he notices her. Tears blur his sight, "It won't come off..." he rasps, despair clear in his every feature.   
  
She kneels beside him, a comforting hand on his shoulder as the other places the puff out of his reach. "What wont come off, love?"   
  
He looks down at his arms, turning them over repeatedly "The blood... it's all over me... I- I don't understand... How- how did I go to bed like this?" He sniffles, "Why wont it come off?" His eyes are shiny with misery and tears.   
  
"Dimitri, darling, there's nothing there..." she assures him with a soft and gentle voice.  
  
He's shaking his head fervently before she even finishes, "No, no. There _is_! They're- they're dripping with blood, don't you see? Everyone's blood is on me. Father's, Glenn's, the knights, ones I've-"  
  
"Dimitri." With a finger to his lip she silences him. "You're _clean_. You've scrubbed your arms raw." Her fingers move up to caress his cheek, teal eyes swimming with empathy "It was a nightmare. You're clean."  
  
While he struggles to believe her words, he stares only at his hands. Byleth cards her fingers through his hair. Patiently waiting for him to accept her comfort and words. When his hands drop to his lap and he leans into her hand she knows he's back.   
  
"Come on." Standing, she offers him a hand up that he instantly accepts. He silently follows her to the bed, shame replacing the despair previously etched into him. Dimitri sits, finally registering the sting of his skin as his arms rest on his clothed knees.   
  
She does not allow him to wallow in it for long. Returning with a container of soothing lotion, she holds out her hand for his arm. Appreciation and affection quickly flood out what shame he felt. Byleth gingerly holds his wrist while applying lotion over his arm. His smile is contagious, and she finds the corners of her own lips turning up as she massages lotion his hands.   
  
"Thank you, my beloved..." he murmurs. She looks up at him with a full smile, continually rubbing his large, rough hands that she loves so much. Once she's content with how much its seeped in, she cups his face and pulls him in for a loving kiss. They rest their foreheads together after, comfortable in wordless affections.   
  
Unwilling to subject himself to such nightmares for a second time that night, Dimitri remains awake while he cuddles with his wife. She sleeps soundly again with him at her side, both of them warm and safe. He plays with her hair idly, smiling to himself as he thinks how lucky he is. To have the most loving, understanding wife, who accepts all of him, and the love he has to offer in return. 


End file.
